


Dead Man Walking

by VolxdoSioda



Category: Death Stranding (Video Games)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:19:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21641164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: The first time Hardman watches Sam through the cufflinks, he's dealing with BTs.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	Dead Man Walking

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still playing through this game (only on chapter 3 so far) but I'm liking it. A lot. 
> 
> That said, please do not spoil me for anything.

The first time Die-Hardman watches Sam Porter Bridges interact with the BTs, it's to see a herd of them come pouring out of the ground like swampwater and try to swallow the man up.

Hardman's seen the BTs devour people before. They swarm, like insects on wing, disturbed by the signs of the living. They grab with hands and _pull, _and people get caught off-balance, too busy struggling or screaming to realize that there _is _a method. The BTs pull, catch people off-balance, and when they fall, _that's _the moment of death. People can't fight as they're dragged beneath the tow of black, and they die there, becoming one of the numerous ghosts floating, invisible, over the country. 

Of course, nothing comes so easy to Sam Porter Bridges. Not even death. A man who fought it on two battlefields, who fights it _now, _fights against the slew of black as the dead come after him, as if enraged that he has managed to return when they can't. And Sam fights. Oh God, does Sam fight. Mouth twisted up in a ferocious snarl, even as the BB on his chest wails and screams itself into a mighty fit, Sam lashes out with feet and hands, and when they try to pull the cargo on his back, stacked so _very _high, down--

Sam grits his teeth, anchors both feet firm, and _pulls back. _

The dead keen, scream, wail their disappointment to the heavens as Sam kicks the last of them aside and struggles forward. Hardman watches, breathless, as the pool grows again beneath Sam's feet, arms reaching out, ready to snatch. And again, Sam fights. Sam fights, and and he fights, and he keeps fighting until he reaches rock, and then he grabs hold and starts hauling ass out of there, back towards the Wind Farm once again. Not even the BTs are enough to stop the man from making a delivery, it seems. He's got black handprints all over him, chin to knees, but he still soldiers on.

Simply incredible. Just as always.

_"He okay?" _Mama asks over the comms. She can't see what he sees, but he can tell her. He could, but he doesn't. Sam has enough baggage (literally), and doesn't need the addition of someone fretting about his BT encounters. Nevermind that they still don't fully understand BTs, why they go after the living so viciously - why they take offense to things as simple as movement and breath. 

"Doing just fine," he replies instead, as Sam mumbles something like _good riddance, _and closes the connection.


End file.
